"Ultra ATA 100" and "ATA 100", is there a difference?

[jonkemerer]

Hiya: http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

I am considering buying a new hard drive as an upgrade for the ol' puter. I narrowed my choice down to two drives, the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 (Ultra ATA 100), and the IBM Deskstar 75GXP (ATA 100). Does anybody know if there is a difference? Is Ultra ATA better than ATA?, I've heard many good compliments on the IBM drive, but I've read that is really is an ATA 66 drive (is that true?) I'm buying a new drive to help insure smooth video captures, as I'm having trouble with my current hard drive keeping up with the transfers.

Anyways if anybody has an insight on the difference between Ultra ATA 100 and plain' ol' boring sounding ATA 100, please let me know I'd really appreciate it. Tthanks!

- Jon k

[kenja]

Greetings, Jon.

The IBM is indeed Ultra 100: http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/desk/ds75gxp.htm

ATA 100, Ultra 100, Ultra DMA 100: All the same thing, just written differently by marketing types.

As I understand it, these "ultra" specs refer to the maximum possible "burst" rates of data transfer from the hard drive's buffer. There wasn't all that much real-world performance difference between Ultra 33 and 66. I'd expect even less difference going from Ultra 66 to 100. (But I bought a new Ultra 100 drive anyway. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif )

In my experience, the good reviews of the Maxtor DiamondMax+ line are fully justified. My Ultra 66, 27.3GB drive is fast and quiet!

[jonkemerer]

Hiyas Kenja: http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

I kind of thought that the Ultra DMA, Ultra ATA, etc etc were pretty much the same thing, just wasn't sure, thank you very much for clarifying it for me.

I have a Maxtor 10 GB right now, which blows away the other hard drive in my puter (An ATA 33 Western Digital). The reason I like the Deskstar more however is because it's cheaper, and has 5 more GB's, plus IBM was the only drive I haven't tried yet so figured,... what the heck? Your right, there's probably not much if any difference between 66 and 100, but every little bit helps when capturing full res video http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif I'd like to start a RAID O configuration with two of these Deskstar suckers one day, but gonna start out slow and only buy one first to see how it goes. If I have a bad experience with 'em (like the experience I'm having right now with Pinnacle Systems...), off to Maxtorland I go!

Anyways, thanks again!, I really appreciate it.

- JK

[ixl]

BTW, I just revised the IDE/ATA section of the site: http://www.PCGuide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/index.htm and if you look there you will find two pages, one discussing real IDE/ATA standards and another talking about the marketing terms like "Ultra ATA" and "ATA/100".

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Charles M. Kozierok
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...
Note: Please reply to my forum postings here on the forums. Thanks.

[This message has been edited by ixl (edited 12-31-2000).]

[kenja]

Thanks for the Guide, Charles! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif